AP European History Review Question 1

This post will focus on another AP exam question, with a new subject we have yet to cover, which is AP European History. It is a pretty extensive exam with a lot of people taking it, so we think it's best that you get some review. Let's dive into it with the sameple question below:

Before it disbanded, the Versailles peace conference did all the following EXCEPT

Your answer choices are:

made Germany sign a war guilt clause.

established the nations of Czechoslovakia and Kingdom of the Slavs (Yugoslavia).

created the League of Nations.

set a very high amount of reparations payments.

limited the Germany army to 100,000 troops.

The correct answer is set a very high amount of reparations payments. In order to answer this, you have to know what exactly the Versailles peace conference was and what occurred as a result of it. The Versailles peace conference also takes on the name as the Paris Peace Conference and it was held in 1919, following the end of World War I to establish the terms of peace amongst the victors of the Allied forces. Of the many decisions made in this conference by the Big Four, which was comprised of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy, the main ones established were:

1.) The League of Nations. It was created to serve as an international forum for countries involved and a security arangement amongst the Allied forces.

2.) Limitation of the German army. The Treaty of Versailles was created as a way to punish Germany. One of the sanctions placed against Germany included reducing it's army and navy size by a sizable amount.

3.) Land redistribution. The German Government was forced to hand over more than 10% of its prewar territory in Europe, which allowed for the establishment of the new Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia nations.

4.) Article 231. This was the opening article to the reparations section that would eventually set the high reparations that the Germans had to pay. This article is often referred to as the War-Guilt Clause, because it essentially forced Germany to take full responsibility and blame for the entire war, hence the "guilt" reference. Though Article 231 mentioned reparements to be paid by the Germans, no set amount was decided upon until after the Paris Peace Conference was over.